Socrates Sculpture Park: Monuments Now / Part I, Beginning 7/10

Jeffrey Gibson, Because Once You Enter My House It Becomes Our House, 2020; Courtesy the Artist, Socrates Sculpture Park, Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York, Kavi Gupta, Chicago, and Roberts Projects, Los Angeles. Image by Scott Lynch. [Image Description: This image depicts a three-tiered pre-columbian style pyramid in a park. It is covered with prints, each side and each tier have a different pattern of prints in pink, orange, yellow, red, turquoise and purple. On the left side of the pyramid, the text reads top to bottom “IN NUMBERS NUMBERS NUMBERS TOO TOO TOO BIG TO IGNORE.”]

In this turbulent moment when American identity and values are being reevaluated, the MONUMENTS NOWexhibition at Socrates Sculpture Park seeks to address the role of monuments in society and commemorate underrepresented narratives such as diasporic, Indigenous, and queer histories.

MONUMENTS NOW evolves over three cumulative parts. Part I opens opens summer 2020 with major new commissions for contemporary monuments by acclaimed artists Jeffrey Gibson, Paul Ramírez Jonas, and Xaviera Simmons. Then Part II and Part III of the exhibition open together on October 10, 2020. Part II encompasses ten monument sculptures by the Park’s 2020 Artist Fellows and Part III features a multi-faceted monument project collectively realized by high school students. All three parts of the exhibition remain on view through March 2021.

In response to MONUMENTS NOW, the Park’s Broadway Billboard will also feature a monuments-related artwork by artist Nona Faustine. Furthermore, in acknowledgment of how monuments are shaped by society as well as by artists, the public is invited to share their reactions on-site and online over the course of the exhibition.

The exhibition will be documented in an artist-focused publication made possible by the Henry Luce Foundation.

MONUMENTS NOW is organized by Socrates Sculpture Park and curated by Jess Wilcox, Socrates Curator & Director of Exhibitions.

You can find out more about Socrates Sculpture Park here.